Through the void

The vampire listened to her childhood memories. So she was a runaway. Because her parents didn’t accept her magic. ”My parents weren’t all too happy with Kaz’ gift either”, He said with a sigh. They had been contemplating sending him away. A discussion that had ultimately costed them their lives. The brothers had overheard their conversation, and Kaz had.. Lost it.

The work he was doing, could be considered a suicide mission. If she wanted to kill vampires, if she was looking for a way to do so, then he was basically helping her commit genocide on his kind. The only positive side was that he would know if she found something interesting. It would be his cue to run. Probably overseas again. The tricky part would be Kaz. He didn’t think the other would follow him. So he would basically leave him to die. Yet, he trusted Allison enough with his brother, for some reason. “I would never do anything to harm him,” She said. He bit his tongue for a second. ”Good”, He only muttered afterwards.

With another book in his hands, he was standing by the table. This time, he went through it as well, but he didn’t understand a lot of what was written down. When she started speaking again, he closed the book with such force the sound echoed through the library. With disbelief, he stared at her. ”Fix what?” He finally dared to ask. What she was implying, almost sounded like a cure. A cure for the curse..

The sound surely caught her attention. Luckily there were not a lot of people in the library at this point. He didn’t draw any other looks. He just lightly shrugged. She was the one casually sharing shocking information, so. After his question, she confirmed his thoughts with two simple words. “A cure,” She whispered softly. Mort looked away from her, at the table. Suddenly the books had a whole other meaning to him. A cure. A way to fix his terrible error. For an awful long time, the vampire went quiet. He simply didn’t know what to say. The impact of her words was too big.

It was hard to comprehend. The male turned away from her, back to the bookcase. He read the titles without really reading them. They were meaningless letters in a random order for the time being. He didn’t know what exactly he was feeling. Relief? Hope? Panic? Fear? All of the above? ”What are the risks? You say they have failed. What happens if you fail too?” He asked, without turning around. Could it kill him in the process? ”Does it simply unfreeze him?” He then asked. That would be.. The best thing that could happen. Get his heart beating again. He would be physically cured of all his ailments and he would be human again.

There were so many questions going through his head at the moment. This time, he didn’t even make a stupid joke as a reply. He just went silent for a while. Thinking about what she had said. Thinking about the impact of it if she could pull this of. Of course there had to be risks though. There wouldn’t be this many books if someone had found a cure already. She had said so herself, all of these men had tried and failed. He didn’t really want to find out what had happened to the vampires they had tried to cure. Finally, he started asking questions. She was pretty vague in answering them though.

There was no need to worry. Sure thing. He was worrying in all kinds of ways at the moment. He had probably figured out the why in this matter. She had mentioned it herself. It was all about Kaz. She wanted to turn him back, because she couldn’t deal with what he was. It was the only logical explanation. If it didn’t work.. Would she leave him? Mort rubbed his eyes, after which he pulled his hand through his hair. ”Properly tested”, He then echoed. Blue eyes sought hers. What did that even mean?

It should be reassuring that she had promised not to risk Kaz’ life while looking for the cure. Sadly, he couldn’t ignore the part where she had mentioned ‘testing’. He had certain pictures in his mind right now, and he didn’t like any of them. If she wanted to test her medicine, she would need people to test it on. Vampires to test it on. Even though there were more than was known to the public, there still weren’t that many. How many would she kill in the process? She was reluctant to answer his question, obviously. The male decided not to push the matter much more.

“I think we should soon have enough,” She said after a while. He turned away from the bookcase again. They hadn’t found that much, but if she thought it was enough, then she would probably be right. He leaned against the table for a second, before choosing to ask her one more question. ”What if he doesn’t accept?” He said. He didn’t expect the other to decline. He was pretty vocal about how much he hated being one. But what if.

So there was still a difference between them. Where he did not respect his brother’s wish, she would. She would just accept it and not force him to do something he didn’t want to do. Mort kept back a sigh. His decision had been selfish, yes. Obviously. And he regretted it, because it had pushed Kaz away from him and he had no idea how to fix it. The hate in his eyes, his cruel words, the distance in between them. If he hadn’t been already dead, it would probably kill him. The vampire didn’t react to her words. It was a discussion he would rather not have right now.

With the books in her arms, she walked over to the employee again. He was kind of reluctant to give her the books, or so it seemed. It was only when she offered him more money, he kept his comments to himself and let them leave. ”Are you going to tell Kaz what you’re researching?” He asked when they were outside. He wondered what kind of effect it would have on his brother. Would he be happy? Angry? His reaction was.. Unpredictable.

To him, the news of a cure had kind of shocked his whole foundation. He had never even thought about the possibility. As far as he had always believed, there was no way out of it. He knew there was some kind of ‘vampire sleep’, a coma when a vampire refused to feed or had no access to blood for a long time. The body just shut down and if one didn’t know better, it would seem like they were dead for real. But there were ways back out of that too, back into immortality. A cure, however.. It had never crossed his thoughts.

Kaz was just a baby vampire. He probably had other things on his mind now too, then to think about Allison and her little experiments. But he didn’t comment on that. ”So, you’re really set on curing the supernatural now huh? Rather than killing them? What made you change your mind?” He asked curiously. Was it really the death of her so called boss, or was there something else going on.

Today he had learned a lot. It hadn’t been a bad decision to join her after all. At first, he had done it with the intention of doing something relaxing before going back to being Kaz’ sire. Along the way, he had picked up a second goal. Get inside her head for a bit. See what made her the person she was. Figure out what she was thinking. Because honestly, she was a mystery. There were so many contradictions, decisions she made that made no actual sense to him. So he almost interrogated her. Not with any bad intentions. He just wanted to understand.

The male thought about her words for a while. ”Not everyone who is cursed, is a monster. Some of us actually try to be decent people”, He said, after which he looked sideways. ”Some of us don’t mind living like this”, He continued. ”So I hope you give everyone the same choice, and not only Kaz”, He said with a sigh. She really believed that what she was doing, was the right thing to do. But that was her perspective. Personally.. He wasn’t that sure.

“Is that truly acceptable?”

That was, indeed, the question. The one question he asked himself almost every day too. Wouldn’t it be better if he stopped drinking blood, and slip into the more permanent death a vampire could experience? Dig a grave for himself somewhere and just disappear. Even with his lifestyle, he still used others to survive. She was right. When she would find a cure, it would be even more criminal to keep living like this. Killing others, slowly, just because he needed energy and wouldn’t accept another way.

”Do you know how many people my sire saved from a life of pain and hunger on the streets?” He decided to ask, instead of answer her question. ”He picked his blood dolls with care. Orphans, widows, addicts, homeless and poor people. He offered them a second chance”, He continued. ”Fair, they live shorter than they would have if they hadn’t said yes. But the quality of their lives improved. And none of them regretted their decision”, He fell quiet again. If there was a mutual agreement.. Then would she still consider it 'unacceptable'?